Brother Kel

Having brothers was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Not to say that sisters are a bad thing - like everything else, they have their good side and their bad side - but there is nothing in the world like having a brother to play with, pick fights with, get rough-and-tumble with, avoid embarrassing hugs with.

Brother Craig was a bit of a surprise, coming along after fifteen years of being the only boy in a house full of girls. But we adjusted. Indeed, we found ourselves having quite a bit of fun with a new baby in the house. But we all knew that it would be cruel and inhumane to subject this 'miracle' child to a life of loneliness, so we petitioned our parents to have at least one more to provide him with company. In a spirit of true love and compassion, they acquiesced, and thus our brother, Kel, was brought into the world.

The first thing that struck us, after sufficient time had elapsed, was that the two brothers were remarkably different. Nature or nurture, we're not sure which had the most influence, but their dispositions and physical characteristics were sufficiently opposed that we would never have difficulty telling them apart. One was slight of frame, agile like a monkey and sly of mind, always looking for ways to get around the rules, extend the boundaries, probe the deep and dark mysteries of the universe (mostly up in trees); the other was built strong like a farmboy, with the kind of happy-go-lucky, salt-of-the-earth attitude that housed a deep well of generosity and a bottomless pit of patience (and he would need every bit of it!). They made a great team. Although they had their moments of tension, anger and boiling-over insanity, they always knew they had each other, and they took care of each other. Mostly.

Like any older brother, Craig occasionally took advantage of his position to try to enforce his will upon his younger sibling. We told him this could backfire; by all the evidence, it appeared that the future held great things in store for Kel, including stature. We warned Craig to be nice to his little brother, because one day, his little brother would be his Big Brother (and if it happened before frontal lobe development caught up with the rest of him, someone might get flattened!). Although I'm not sure if that warning really got through, it is evident that they both survived adolescence, so something must've gone right.

I had grown up and moved on before they were very old, and one of my biggest regrets is not spending more time with them when they were little. I had always imagined that they would remain my little brothers, both in size and age, but they didn't. They grew up, enduring some pretty rough life lessons; and then we were separated for so long by distance and circumstance that, when we did get together, it was like meeting them for the first time all over again.

Especially Kel. There's something about the physical changes in a person that cause some kind of reset in my brain regarding that relationship. I remember Kel's early days like they were yesterday, when he was half as tall and not nearly as sure of himself as he is now. Now he is a good-sized young man with a deep voice, a fuzzy face, many more skills and experiences under his belt; and every time we meet, I'm amazed that he is my brother, with the kind of amazement that comes from looking at someone I thought I knew, but then realizing that everything I know is obsolete, ancient, out-of-date; he has grown up into someone far more interesting and mysterious than the little boy I once knew, and I want to know even more, to sit at his feet and hear the stories of the things he has seen and done, to try and understand what has made him the man he is today.

Maybe one day, he'll write a book, or compose an album of songs, or make a movie that will help me to know the man behind all those memories. I'm hoping that he will find his muse, his passion, his True Voice, and we'll all be able to enjoy his Story. And that God will bless him with a truly marvelous Rest-of-the-Story for the coming years.

Happy Birthday, Brother Kel!